01:55
Faizan
Creating a successful business proposal is much more than simply editing documents and shipping them off to a prospect. There may be many reasons why your business proposal did not get accepted.
If you are new to proposal writing, try to look at each proposal project as a learning experience, and plan on altering your strategy and presentation as needed along the way.
After you've found out that you didn't win the job, you should try to tactfully interview the prospect. When possible, communicate directly to the employee responsible for determining the winning proposal.
Explain that you want to learn the reason(s) why your proposal was rejected so that you can make improvements in the future. Give careful consideration to what they have to say and thank them for their advice. Do not forget, however, that they may not tell you the actual reason behind your loss. Some people may be wary of coming across too negative, and of course there are always times where an acquaintance or family member was picked for the job instead of using a true competitive process.
While you can learn from mistakes, you should try your best to win with every attempt. Don't let sloppy mistakes keep your proposal from getting noticed. A failure to land the client or get the project approved is often due to the some of these common reasons:
#1: Writing style: your style was not appealing to the prospect.
To avoid a style mismatch, do some research to find out about the style of the person and/or company you are writing to. For example, if you are writing a proposal for a banking institution where all employees dress in business suits, it would not be a bright idea to write your proposal in a folksy, casual style.
If you are new to proposal writing, try to look at each proposal project as a learning experience, and plan on altering your strategy and presentation as needed along the way.
After you've found out that you didn't win the job, you should try to tactfully interview the prospect. When possible, communicate directly to the employee responsible for determining the winning proposal.
Explain that you want to learn the reason(s) why your proposal was rejected so that you can make improvements in the future. Give careful consideration to what they have to say and thank them for their advice. Do not forget, however, that they may not tell you the actual reason behind your loss. Some people may be wary of coming across too negative, and of course there are always times where an acquaintance or family member was picked for the job instead of using a true competitive process.
While you can learn from mistakes, you should try your best to win with every attempt. Don't let sloppy mistakes keep your proposal from getting noticed. A failure to land the client or get the project approved is often due to the some of these common reasons:
#1: Writing style: your style was not appealing to the prospect.
To avoid a style mismatch, do some research to find out about the style of the person and/or company you are writing to. For example, if you are writing a proposal for a banking institution where all employees dress in business suits, it would not be a bright idea to write your proposal in a folksy, casual style.
Posted in: business
